Crazy Little Thing
by IronAmerica
Summary: Jason tries really hard not to focus on how awkward his family has gotten. It doesn't always work.


Hey, it's a new story! Jason/Nate has some drunken introspection on his home life.

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

- o – o -

Crazy Little Thing (or else, Oh God, Why Me?)

Jason Neville is an intelligent kid. Well, intelligent _man_, since he's old enough (by the laws of the former United States and the Monroe Republic, anyways) to move out of his parents' home and start a family of his own. He's getting pretty good at finding excuses to go on patrols to anywhere he can think of, even volunteering to work as an overseer on a chain gang near St. Louis. (He's on the fast track for a captaincy, according to one glowing report his father gave over the dinner table the last time he couldn't avoid going home.)

It's all Danny Matheson's fault.

Jason keeps telling himself that every time he sees his mother walking through the streets of Philadelphia, arm in arm with Matheson. Six months before, he'd helped hand-deliver the kid (and Danny _is_ a kid) to the president of the Monroe Republic. Six months ago, he was pretty sure that would be the last of any Matheson he'd see. (Well, see _alive_ at any rate; Charlie wasn't going to survive, and her uncle would probably hang himself in grief or something. Jason didn't really care, as long as Miles Matheson never called him "chuckles" or "nipples", or any one of a hundred other humiliating nicknames again.)

He likes telling himself that the reason he gets drunk with Richards every night that he can get away from his responsibilities is so that he can bitch about how his father is screwing a kid who's barely legal to own property, much less drink. (Alright, it _is_ why he's drinking. Richards is a scary shit, but at least he _understands_ Jason's problems.)

It's still Danny's fault. If Danny had just had the courtesy to die, or just had the courtesy not to be so damn attractive to Jason's father, Jason wouldn't have to avoid making eye-contact with his parents. Matheson screwed everything up, just by existing.

The soldier can't tell if most of his mental ranting is from getting so shitfaced he can't even remember his own name, or if it's because he's trying to find the logic in the fact that—not only have his parents rescued Matheson and taken him into their bed (which would somehow be liveable if they were just screwing him because they could)—but the fact that he's supposed to be all happy and witness their commitment ceremony. (Jason's seriously hoping that it's not an actual marriage because bigamy is illegal—it's not, last time he checked the books…sometime earlier this morning—and not because they're just waiting until they can get Danny back to normal, where he doesn't freak at people getting close to him.)

Jason really wishes he had more friends his age who weren't married, or who weren't screwing a laundry list of people. He has plenty of friends, but all of them have records of how many people they've had sex with. One of them has a rolodex, for god's sake. (Jason's seen it, and he _still_ can't tell if they're joking about having General Monroe and General Miles Matheson at some point. He kind of hopes they are.)

But back to Danny screwing up his life. Jason can't resist the urge to beat his head against a solid object, like a table, or a book or (on one memorable occasion) the train every time he sees his father with an arm wrapped around Danny's shoulders.

The three of them do, if Jason's drunk enough to think about it, make a cute couple. He kind of wishes he knew why Smith's wife keeps giggling about some "White Collar" whenever she hears or sees his parents walking on either side of the interloper. (He wishes he knew why the women kept cooing over Danny. They'd used to do that for him, and now he was so much chopped liver. It was annoying.)

Jason's pretty sure he's not drunk enough to agree to be a witness just yet. But he has to go, or his dad will make sure he doesn't get any more patrols. That would mean, Jason realizes with a shudder, that he'll have no way to beg out of family dinners. He will _have_ to see his mom kissing Danny's hand, or see his father pulling Danny down for a kiss, right after kissing Jason's mom (sometimes before, sometimes at the same time).

He really, _really_ wishes he'd stayed with Charlie and her party, and had _made_ Miles trust him. Because then he wouldn't have to avoid his mother, or his childhood home.

Jason hates Danny Matheson and everything he represents. He says so to Richards as he reaches for the next bottle in the line that they've been drinking from.

And why, in God's name, did Danny Matheson have to have such a nice ass?

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Feel sorry for poor Jason Neville/Nate Walker? Drop a line and let me know!


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